Ask 1,500 people about their bedroom
You get into bed and something is off. The sheet is twisted, the nightstand is a landfill, and the laundry chair is watching you. You’ll sleep, probably. The question is how well.
In 2011 the National Sleep Foundation telephoned 1,500 US adults and asked about the room they sleep in. Everyone was between 25 and 55. Two things to know before the numbers. It’s a poll, so people are reporting what they believe helps them. And it was paid for by an educational grant from a detergent brand, which is worth remembering when you reach the part about scented sheets. The full summary is public.
Comfort came first. About 9 in 10 called a comfortable mattress important to a good night’s sleep, and pillows polled almost exactly the same. The feel of the sheets mattered to 85%. Then came the room itself: a cool temperature mattered to 79%, and fresh air free of allergens to 75%. A dark room was important to 73% and a quiet one to 72%. A clean bedroom came in at 66%, two-thirds of everyone asked.
Sheets got their own section. Almost 3 in 4 agreed they sleep more comfortably on sheets with a fresh scent (remember who paid). A majority, 62%, change their sheets once a week or more often. And then the finding that travelled furthest: 71% make their bed every day or almost every day. The bed-makers were more likely to say they get a good night’s sleep every day or almost every day, 44% of them. Among everyone else it was 37%. That gap is the “19% more likely” you may have read somewhere.
A poll can’t say that making the bed causes anything. What it can say is that people who sleep well tend to keep a room that’s cool, clean, dark and quiet, and that most of them believe the room is part of why.
What else is in the bed
You’re not alone in there. The bed is where dust mites concentrate.
They live on the skin flakes you shed and settle deep into the mattress, the pillows and the bedding, and about 20 million people in the US are allergic to them (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America). A stuffy nose at 2 a.m. is a sleep problem as much as an allergy problem.
The fixes are the same ones that make a bedroom feel clean. Wash sheets and blankets weekly in water of at least 130°F and dry them hot. Zip allergen-barrier covers onto the mattress and pillows. Keep humidity between 30% and 50%. Vacuum weekly with a HEPA filter. The CDC adds one more for anyone with asthma or a pet allergy: the dog sleeps somewhere else (CDC, controlling asthma triggers).
The CDC on your bedroom
The CDC’s sleep habits fit on an index card. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Keep the bedroom quiet, relaxing and cool. Turn the screens off at least 30 minutes before bed (CDC, About Sleep). Its occupational health institute goes further for shift workers, who have the hardest time sleeping of anyone: a room that is very dark, quiet, cool and comfortable can improve sleep, so block light from windows and doorways and get the white and blue light sources, clocks and phones, out of the room (NIOSH).
Set those beside the poll and they rhyme. Cool, dark, quiet and clean are the 4 words that come up from the people and from the agencies.
15 minutes on laundry day
Most of the research above comes down to a few habits with a fixed rhythm.
- Every day, 2 minutes. Make the bed. Clear the nightstand down to the lamp and the book. Open the window for a few minutes if the air outside allows.
- Every week, 15 minutes. Strip the bed and wash the sheets and pillowcases hot. Vacuum the floor, under the bed and along the edge of the mattress. Dust with a damp cloth. Empty the bin.
- Every month. Wash pillows, duvets and mattress protectors as their labels allow. Wipe the blinds or shake out the curtains. Check the humidity if you have a meter.
- Each season. Wipe baseboards, door frames and the vent cover. Turn the mattress if the maker says to. Go through the closet for anything you haven’t worn.
If the weekly part is what slips, tie it to something that already happens. Strip the bed on the morning you run laundry anyway, and start the sheets first so they’re dry by evening. Keep a second set so a late wash never means a bare bed. The 15 minutes go faster when the vacuum and a cloth live in the bedroom closet instead of down the hall. As for the laundry chair, the one most bedrooms seem to have: empty it tonight. It’s seen enough.